Last of 3 New Jersey siblings shot by mother dies of wounds

Reuters

Last of three children shot by their mother in NJ has died

TABERNACLE, NJ — An 11-year-old New Jersey boy, one of three siblings shot by their mother last week before she turned the gun on herself, has died of his wounds, becoming the fourth fatality in the shootings, state police said on Wednesday.

Alexander Harriman had been hospitalized in critical condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden since the shootings Thursday morning at a home in Tabernacle.

The two other children, 8-year-old Nadia Harriman and 14-year-old Nicholas Harriman, were declared dead at the scene of the shootings in the house in a wooded area of the rural Pine Barrens, about 25 miles east of Philadelphia.

Their mother, Jeaninne LePage, succumbed to her wounds on Sunday at the same hospital where her son died.

LePage, 44, used a pillow to conceal the sounds of gunshots when she shot the children, police said.

The shootings took place in an upstairs bedroom, where all four victims were found in the same bed, police said. A revolver that was kept in the house and may have belonged to a long-dead relative was found near LePage's body.

Nine people including other school-age children lived at the home, and the use of the pillow may explain how the shooting occurred without being heard by members of LePage's extended family.